Electrolytic preparation of porous TiSi2/Si nanocomposites and the electrochemical performances as lithium-ion battery anode

•TiSi2/Si nanocomposite was synthesized by molten salt electrolysis.•The structure contained silicon nanowires surrounded by alloyed TiSi2 nanoparticles.•The first discharging capacity was 2107 mAh/g with columbic efficiency of 89.96%. One of the key efficient strategies to optimize the silicon micro-structure and to improve the lithium-storage electrochemical performance is to introduce the metallic phase into silicon matrix to realize the silicon-metal recombination as well as the nanocrystallization of silicon structure. The present research introduced metallic titanium to synthesis TiSi2/Si nanocomposites by the aid of electrolyzing SiO2/TiO2 in molten salt. The reduced nanocomposites exhibited excellent lithiation stability with the initial discharging specific capacity of 2107 mA h/g and the first columbic efficiency of 89.96%. Particularly benefiting from the compositional TiSi2 phase and the structural superiority of silicon nanowires surrounded by the alloyed nanoparticles, the as-obtained anode also delivered a high rate capacity. The major objective of this study is to establish the technology for molten salt electrolytic preparation of TiSi2/Si nanocomposites for lithium-ion batteries and further to offer solutions for modifying the silicon anode materials.